Christmas at Home 2011

Wishing you all Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year 2012! Some sketches of homey Christmas in Seattle.

Luminaires I bought at Souluminations Holiday Art Sale made by Lynette Johnson.

John and Matthew playing Othello Christmas Morning.

Sanyo Band and Garfield Orchestra @ Meany Hall University of Washington

Tonight was a combined concert of two great high school music programs.  Garfield High School Orchestra hosted the Sanyo Band from Japan this week.  This is an ongoing musical exchange between the two schools.  Music was absolutely astounding from both schools and played at the Meany Hall for Performing Arts at University of Washington.  I have taught at the UW for a long time but have never been in Meany Hall!  And to find a Chilhuly Glass installation as well as a mural by Jacob Lawrence was an extra treat!

Meany Hall, Sanyo Band Performance 2011

 

Meany Hall Lobby, Chihuly Glass

Sketches from Thanksgiving

Finally getting a chance to post sketches from our thanksgiving.  We had a wonderful time with dear friends on Bainbridge Island who graciously open their house to about 16-20 of us for thanksgiving each year.  The numbers have changed as kids have grown up and moved away for college or work  but they all seem to want to come back. We start the holiday on Wednesday evening avoiding the Thursday traffic to Bainbridge....but we've noticed people catching on to this trick.  Wednesday night we had to wait for a later ferry because the ferry lines were so long!  Thanksgiving is a holiday we always look forward to.

Waiting in line for the Ferry to Bainbridge

Thanksgiving morning breakfast

Playing Rummio

One half of the long table waiting for dessert.

Eagle Harbor Bookstore

On the way back.  Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal.

Sketches from the Wing Luke Museum

Urban Sketchers had an opportunity to sketch at the Wing Luke Museum.  This museum celebrates the Asian American History in the Pacific Northwest.  Here are a few sketches I did as we were touring the museum.

Montage sketches from a scrim that was used as advertisement space at the Nippon Kan Theatre at the turn of  the 20th Century

The Association Hall where family association groups would gather for meetings.

Association Hall and Kitchen,  Turn of the century stove with wok.

Sketch from Essential Bakery on East Madison

Front counter @ Essential Bakery

I did the line work on Sunday before we had a brunch with friends.  Then I added color this morning after a meeting.

Sketches from the Arboretum and Pacific Science Center

Yesterday we had brunch at Luc's in on Madison Avenue.  Great brunch by the way.  Walking back home I stopped at the Washington Park Arboretum Stone Gate house.  I have been wanting to sketch this building and entry for a long time.

In the afternoon we went to the Pacific Science Center @ Seattle Center for Garfield High School Cross Country end of the year Banquet.  I did a sketch of a huge rubics cube that is located at the center.

Starbucks Madison Park, Seattle

Sitting at the Wine Bar at Starbucks in Madison Park.

Sunday PM @ the Anchor Pub with Magnolia Big Band

Looking down at the Bar @ the Anchor Pub.

Right after the Sunday morning sketchcrawl, we drove to Everett to meet the Whidbey Island sketchers and hear the Magnolia Big Band at the Historic Anchor Pub.  What a great venue!   The new owners have transformed the pub and has made it a great place for a beer and sandwich or pot pie.  The Magnolia Big Band were in top form and we thoroughly enjoyed their music!

Magnolia Big Band @ the Historic Anchor Pub in Everett, WA

Sunday Morning Sketchcrawl @ JM Cellars

Had a busy Sunday this weekend.  Both the Crush at JM Cellars and the performance of Magnolia Big Band @ the Anchor Pub happened this weekend.  What a great day of sketching. 

There were about 7 Seattle Sketchers who came to the morning sketch at JM Cellars.  The timing of the crush is totally dependent on the sugar level of the grapes.  So when the grapes are ready, it happens. Luckily we could all make it this Sunday!

Forklift dumping the grapes into the crusher.

JM Cellars Tasting Room.

Fishtank

Quick sketch while waiting for my son at the Dental office.

Family Weekend @ WWU

Last weekend we went up to Western Washington University in Bellingham for the Family Weekend to see our son Ian.  It was a typical Northwest Fall....rainy and then blue skies!  During the stretches of dry I was able to do a sketch on campus, at the Saturday market, and then along the waterfront on the South Bay trail. I am testing out a new palette and new sketchbook.  Doing this really changes my watercolors and how the paint takes to the paper.  I am also testing out some of the exercises in Jeanne Dobie's watercolor  book "Making Color Sing".  I am using her palette of suggested colors.  Luckily I had most of them and only added two colors to my already existing tubes of colors.

Bellingham's Saturday Farmer's Market

View of the Alaska Ferry Terminal From the South Bay Trail

Jeanne Dobie's Palette

Bischofberger Violins

I took my son to Bischofberger Violins to get new strings put on his violin.   This is a great violin shop that looks just like what you think a music store should look like.  I would love to just go by and spend some time sketching in there.  While waiting for the strings to be put on I did a sketch on the resin receipt.

Ting MoMo

I just had lunch at Ting Momo today.  Of course I didn't bring a sketchbook.  I always seem to forget to have one with me because my purse is so full of other items.  But I did get a napkin from there and was able to sketch the place.  Great location in South Lake Union and a neat restaurant.  It is Tibetan food which I had never had before.  Some similarities to chinese food.

The Q @ Garfield High School

Practicing with watercolor pencils on a quick sketch I did outside of Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center at Garfield High School.

A Sketch and a Cuppa Jo

Essential Bakery in Wallingford is a wonderful spot to sit down for a pastry and coffee or tea, grab a newspaper and read the morning paper or like I did do a quick sketch.  It has wonderful ambiance. The napkin sketch was done on an earlier visit.  Then I came back to do a sketch from a similar point of view in my sketchbook.

Sketching on Capitol HIll, Seattle

Urban Sketchers met this morning on Capitol Hill, sketching the environs around Group Health and 15th Ave. East.  This is the sketch I did of First Church of Christ Scientist.  We were lucky to have a morning without rain.  It came down hard after we reconvened at Victrola Coffee.

Testing out new Watercolors from Daniel Smith

I bought some new watercolors from Daniel Smith yesterday since they had a 20% off on everything.
So I decided to test out my new colors on an old line sketch I did last Fall at Pike Place Market. This sketch was a quicky probably 15-20 minutes and I never had time to go back and finish it with watercolor. 

In front of Lowell's Cafe

Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas are in bloom what a wonderful way to have a bouquet of flowers from your garden.  Great colors!  Here are some I sketched and watercolored last night.

Urban Sketching @ Kenmore Air

Sunday Urban sketchers sketched the operations at Kenmore Air.  It is a great location and fun to see all the float planes being loaded into the water and prepping to take off.
Here are my sketches for the day.  Things happened so fast there you had to capture the scene quickly.  As a result I was able to do 5 sketches.

Fueling up.

Loading into the water.

Taking off!

Yellow Float Plane

Maintenance

Flowers from My Garden

My son and I were working on painting the trim on our house and I had to clear away some of the over grown bushes and flowers which made a nice summer bouquet.

National Night Out

Every year we have the Magnolia Big Band play at our block watch party.  One of our neighbors is a member of this band and their practice nights coincide with National Night Out.  Here is a sketch of the group playing.

Magnolia Big Band

View from My Porch

The hydrangeas are blooming!  And today was a sunny day so I sketched the view of our side garden from my front porch.

Practicing clouds and sunset

This sketch is from a photo shot by my son of South Lake Union at Sunset.

Sunny Day @ Japanese Tea Garden

Two bad days between our great weekend and we have  another great sunny day in Seattle.  This time I went to the Japanese Tea Garden and did a couple of sketches.